Famke Janssen

Biography of Famke Janssen

Famke Janssen was born on November 5, 1964 in Amstelveen. She is a Dutch actress, film director, film producer, screenwriter and a former model.

Famke Janssen has two sisters, director Antoinette Beumer and actress Marjolein Beumer. In 1984 she moved to New York City, where she studied literature at Columbia University. She then worked successfully as a photo model for the agency Elite Model Management and at the same time took acting lessons. She then moved to Los Angeles to begin her acting career.

First, Janssen took on guest roles in television series such as Starship Enterprise - The Next Generation and Melrose Place. She had her first film role in the 1992 drama film Fathers and Sons alongside Jeff Goldblum. Janssen's breakthrough role was as the killer Xenia Onatopp in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye.

The year 2000 marked a new high point in her career, when she demonstrated her acting versatility with the romantic comedy Love & Sex and established herself as a box-office star with her role in the superhero film series X-Men. She turned down an offer to play the female lead in the 2003 film Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. In the second and sixth seasons of the US series Nip/Tuck she played the role of transsexual counselor Ava Moore. In March 2012, she landed a role in the 2013 sci-fi thriller series Hemlock Grove. More film and television appearances followed. Her work includes around 60 productions.

Janssen is fluent in English, Dutch and French and speaks some German. She was married to director and screenwriter Tod Williams from 1995 to 2000.